She was just about to say that she would immediately book a different hotel when he interrupted. "Because you're not here. I miss you."

"What?" Her voice weakened when she realized what he had just said.

"I miss you, Zaria." He repeated in his deep, seductive voice that was full of longing.

She almost didn't know what to say. "Sir…"

"You know you don't have to call me that." He cut her off.

"I still want to. Boss, please eat and have some rest. You will meet with Mr. Sano at 16:00 (GMT+9). You have about an hour and a half to catch up on some sleep."

Although she gave him a reasonable reminder, he knew that she was doing it just to change the topic. She was still mad at him.

She couldn't be blamed. It was he who had wrecked the closeness that had started to blossom between them, all thanks to a moment of anger. He could only sigh and think of a way to make it up to her.

He laughed at her reminder. "Your math is wrong. There's still 3 hours to 4 pm. What happened to half of the time?

"There is nothing wrong." Came her sharp-tongued tone, warning him that she was about to say something mean. "Since you are fond of forgetting what to wear and bothering your employees, I set your flight at the time I did for this reason. If you sleep for one hour and a half, you will have the same amount of time to prepare for the meeting. You can use that chance to decide on what to wear. Otherwise, since I'm too busy to help you out, you may have to wear the emperor's new robe[1]. Sir, I need to prepare for work. Bye."

He chuckled when she hung up. She wasn't in the slightest bit scared of offending him, was she?

…

Tokyo, in the hotel room.

The man held the phone whose screen had turned black after the call ended. Despite having been scolded by Zaria, he was full of joy. It had only been a few days since he witnessed this side of her, but he had so badly missed it…

"I want to sleep. What did you call me for?" Liam arrived and suddenly asked irritably, jolting him out of his thoughts and reminding him that he had called Liam a few minutes ago.

He glanced at him and went straight to the point. "Set up a meeting with Samantha."

"What do you want to do?" Liam must have been taken aback by the sudden order.

However, Desmond could no longer trust him with every piece of information. Not until he was sure of what was happening. He merely glanced at Liam. "Just do it."

The latter didn't ask too many questions either, so he dialled Samantha's number with a shrug and made the call.

"Liam? Why did you call me?" The woman sounded surprised, and Desmond heard her voice since Liam had the phone on speaker.

He fought the urge to rain a barrage of curses as soon as he heard that fake, innocent voice.

Liam shot his friend a look and spoke. "Sam, how have you been?"

"Hanging in there." Samantha sighed dramatically. "Do you need something?"

Desmond facepalmed when he caught the obvious hurt in his friend's eyes. What was there to be hurt about? Had Liam fallen into that woman's trap too? Could he not be such an idiot?

Liam wanted to ask whether Samantha was really alright or pretending to be, but he changed his mind. Instead, he asked, "Are you free this weekend? Do you mind catching up over some drinks on Sunday?"

"But you're busy…" The woman sounded reluctant.

Liam knew what was on her mind, so he said, "I'm not. Desmond isn't against me meeting you so don't worry about it."

As expected, she was more relieved. "See you on Sunday, then."

By the time the call ended, Desmond's eyebrows were knitted as he shook his head.

Liam knew what he was thinking from a glance. He sighed helplessly. "Why don't you try to understand? Samantha is your sister. She was manipulated...she didn't have any choice but to do what she did."

Desmond shot him a glare. "Would anyone manipulate the devil? She is the one who manipulated everyone, and from the looks of it, she may have her way with you soon as well."

Liam shook his head. "I know what I'm doing. I don't do things without a reason, Desmond. You know that."

Desmond couldn't refute his words. If he didn't know this about Liam, he would have long exploded regarding what he did recently.

Liam knew what Desmond wanted to ask, so he stood up and left. He was not ready to answer to that yet.

Luckily, he had already sown a seed of doubt between the two of them. He would not need to do anything else, and they would not be able to get as close as they had been.

Since he had misunderstood her as an accomplice of Jaime, it was like a wake-up call to her. She now knew that there could never be such a thing as trust between her and Desmond.

While he thought of all this, he couldn't help recalling how irritated she looked when he got close to her at the private airstrip. His heart ached all over again as he mumbled to himself. "I'm sorry, Zaria."

___

Desmond would only return on Saturday, so Zaria took care of everything on Friday and would report all the major progress to him. By the end of the day, she lamented about how being a CEO was no easy task.

She didn't have to do everything and pretty much did her usual job, only that this time she had to make the final decision about some matters. Since she didn't want Desmond to be buried in a mountain of work as soon as he returned, she did as much as she could and was so exhausted that she slumped into the couch as soon as she arrived home. She then sent him the texts to explain what she had dealt with and what needed his attention.